Cosfest SEA 2017 onboard Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas

The 138,000 tons cruise ship with a capacity to hold 3,807 passengers, was transformed into a world of cosplay fantasy, playing host to Asia’s biggest cosplay festival at sea for the second time.

COSFEST SEA: Beyond The Great Horizons is organised by The Singapore Cosplay Club in collaboration with Royal Caribbean. This special themed cruise event featured some of the region’s top cosplayers, vying for the Asia Cosplay Meet 2017 championship plus exciting cosplay entertainment and activities for fans and guests. The competition this year featured contestants from China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong, with guest performances from American cosplayers.

For the competition, this was held over two afternoons at the Savor Theatre. The first round featured the single and double performances, followed by the team (3 pax) performances during the finale the next day.

Photos from the single performances:

Team China - Ranma 1/2

China – Ranma 1/2

Team Japan

Japan

Team Korea

Korea

Team Singapore

Singapore

Philippines

Philippines

Thailand

Thailand

Indonesia

Indonesia

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

USA

USA

All the single contestants on stage

All the Single contestants on stage

Photos from the double performances:

China

China

Japan

Japan

Korea

Korea

Singapore

Singapore

Thailand

Thailand

Philippines

Philippines

Indonesia

Indonesia

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

All the Double contestants on stage

All the Double contestants on stage

USA

USA

Photos from the team performances:

Team China - Alice in Wonderland

Team China – Alice in Wonderland

Team Japan

Team Japan

Team Korea

Team Korea

Team Singapore - Bleach

Team Singapore – Bleach

Team Thailand - Detective Conan

Team Thailand – Detective Conan

Team Philippines

Team Philippines

Team Indonesia - One Piece

Team Indonesia – One Piece

Team Hong Kong

Team Hong Kong

Team USA

Team USA

All teams on stage

All teams on stage

After three rounds of intense competition, the winning team was announced right after the team performances. The winners were narrowed to the last three teams consisting of the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan. In the end, the winning team was:

I felt this was a well-deserved win for Team Indonesia. They showcased their diverse talents, choosing to work on a mecha video game character for the Single component; a crowd-pleasing skit featuring Mr. Bean from the hit television series of the same name for the Double segment; and a slew of cute characters from one of the hottest anime at the moment, One Piece, for the Team finale. There was a good balance of showcasing their costume making skills, while not forgetting to entertain onstage with their showmanship.

Congratulations to Team Indonesia!

Congratulations to Team Indonesia!

The other two runner-up teams were pretty good too, but just lacked one thing or another in terms of showmanship and entertainment value across all three rounds, compared to Team Indonesia. Special mention should be given to Team Philippines for the tons of costume and props they presented on stage. I wonder how they managed to ship all these stuff from the Philippines to Singapore and then onto the ship! It must have been hell of a logistic nightmare!

Other than the Asia Cosplay Meet competition, there were other cosplay activities for guests on the cruise ship to participate in. The most popular activity was the visit to the pop-up Cosplay Museum, featuring costumes, props and cosplay characters from some of your favourite superhero movies:

At the pop-up Costume Museum - there are costumes for kids to wear as they walked through the museum on a free guided tour

At the pop-up Costume Museum – there are costumes for kids to wear as they walked through the museum on a free guided tour

On the last night of sailing, there was also a cosplay parade where all the cosplayers went about modelling their costumes for the public along the royal promenade:

Team Korea at the parade

Team Korea at the parade

Throughout the cruise trip, you will spot cosplayers on the ship, going about their photo shoots or just having fun with their friends. Just approach any of them politely if you want to take a photo with them and they usually will oblige. I took some photos of the cosplayers here and there while on the cruise: